RECORD REVIEWS

'STADIUM ARCADIUM'
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Warner Bros.)
Grade: B
Now that iTunes has rebirthed the popularity of the single, releasing a 28-song, double-disc CD set is the height of audacity, a throwback to the excesses of the '70s when everyone from hard rock's Led Zeppelin to disco's Donna Summer did double album packages.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, with can-do producer Rick Rubin in top form these days, do the near impossible by releasing a viable double album that doesn't make listeners wish it had been pruned into a single disc.
The inspired "Stadium Arcadium," the band's ninth studio set, finds the Peppers at a peak where vocalist Anthony Kiedis continues to improve as a singer, the agile rhythm section of Flea and Chad Smith hit hard Prince-worthy funk ("Charlie") and sublime post-"Californication" balladry in "Snow [Hey Oh]" with equal aplomb, and guitarist John Frusciante cuts loose with jet engine-sized solos on a batch of rock cuts such as "Turn It Again." That one, the set's penultimate track, should have been the closer in that regard to bring this diverse, ambitious and shockingly cohesive mammoth to an invigorating conclusion.
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald
'SURPRISE'
Paul Simon (Warner Bros.)
Grade: C
Paul Simon is one of the all-time great pop songwriters, on par with Bob Dylan in the poetry vein and his superior in crafting warm, engaging, harmonious melodies.
He has also released fewer clunkers than Dylan who, when he's bad, is truly bad. In five decades, stretching into his Simon & amp; Garfunkel '60s work and a solo career begun in grand form in 1971, Simon's facility has failed him entirely only once. (The "Capeman" project in the late '90s.)
It fails him once again on "Surprise," a collaboration with avant garde producer Brian Eno (U2). The problem isn't so much Simon's lyrics this time, but his melodies lack their usual grace. Only "War Time Prayers," with repeat plays, reveals some hint of Simon's old melodic craft at work.
The rest, from Eno's abrasive and overused soundscapes to the wet blanket feel of Simon's voice, feels indulgent and dull. This would have been a much more pleasant and welcome "Surprise" had the prickly Simon chosen old partner Art Garfunkel instead for a long overdue Simon & amp; Garfunkel studio set.
-- Howard Cohen, Miami Herald
'GOODBYE ALICE IN WONDERLAND'
Jewel (Atlantic)
Grade: C
You say you miss the old Jewel -- the impoverished, introspective one, the quiet confessor with the acoustic guitar and the "poems" who lives in her car and sings in cheap coffeehouses?
How '90s.
After a bout of slick satire -- 2003's plastic dancey "0304" -- Jewel's summoned forth the singer-songwriter within to draw painstakingly detailed biographical sketches throughout the best dashed bits of "Only One Too" and the title track.
So far so good, if you like that sort of thing.
Only now, it's pumped by thicker sound with bigger choruses and chintzier clich & eacute;s. Men lie? Hollywood isn't sincere? Too many of Jewel's penitent pleas come off overly glossy and dumbly pretentious, breathlessly wordy thumbnail portraits of a storied past we couldn't care less about.
With "Good Day" and its creepy childish mumble the lamest of the lot, "Goodbye" finds Jewel 2006 not reminiscing, but rather Botoxing her sad inner child.
Let that poor kid go already.
A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer
'WOLFMOTHER'
Wolfmother (Modular/Interscope)
Grade: A
There are few bands causing more fervor among music fans than the powerful Australian trio Wolfmother. Blistering live performances at SXSW and the Coachella festival have generated strong word of mouth for the group, and for once, you can believe the hype: Wolfmother flat out rocks.
The group's debut full-length album is a full-blown hard rock sensation that clearly draws inspiration from early 1970s bombast by groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Who and Jethro Tull. Ripping power chords bust through your gut and leave you gasping for air, while front man Andrew Stockdale's high-pitched, soaring vocals engender immediate references to Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Plant.
Even Wolfmother's lyrical content and album art reflect a bygone era, with songs such as "White Unicorn," "Where Eagles Have Been " and "Mind's Eye" referencing mythological topics galore. Everything about the band says "epic," and it's only a matter of time before old-school rockers and retro enthusiasts graft onto one of the most potent rock records to come out in years.
Tim Pratt, Detroit Free Press